Tag Archive | midwives

Birth Trauma

Birth Trauma is a topic that has been weighing on my mind quite heavily the last couple of days. There have been ongoing protests outside BC Women’s Hospital in the last few months, and more are planned for different locations and hospitals around the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. The protests certainly caught my attention with this video on you tube Birth Rally at BC Women’s Hospital.

I know Birth Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of a birth experience exists, but this was the first time I was seeing people openly speaking out with terms like “Obstetric Violence” and actually naming the doctors who imposed unnecessary medical procedures on women without their consent. Seeing the signs just gives a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg. It’s hard to understand exactly what they mean until you take a closer look at what happened, why and how it causes the actual experience of Trauma. Then after that, the important question of, “What do you want to do about it?” needs to be asked.

One of the organisers of the events, Kalina Christoff, has also provided a detailed explanation of what exactly happened that caused her distress, what she did after to start a dialogue with hospital staff, and why she eventually felt like holding rallies was the only way left to create change for other women. You can read her story here : Vancouver Birth Tauma.

Untangling the mess

The term ‘Birth Trauma’ can refer to two things – physical damage to babies during birth; and the psychological damage to mothers during birth. Of course, there is also psychological damage to babies that can happen during birth but since that is harder to study, research in the area is relatively new and scarce. The content of this article will be about birth trauma to mothers. (I believe that mother-baby are not separate and what causes stress and harm to mothers, causes that to babies as well. And when mothers are treated well, babies are treated well. You can’t stress the mom out and say you’re doing it to take care of the baby. The mom’s stress will stress the baby out too.)

The general public has a perception of what Birth Trauma means. They usually assume birth is pretty painful and can be so unbearable that it can be traumatizing. So an epidural seems like a pretty good solution. Or they may think that women may feel traumatized only when their babies are injured or die during the birth process. While these events may happen, there is a much more multi-layered dynamic.

First of all it helps to understand the process of Labour and Birth as made up of two distinct processes –

1. The natural course of events that would take place if there was no human intervention, and

2. The human intervention that takes place, usually in the form of medical procedures, some minor and some major, both of which can alter the course of the natural process itself.

What Causes Trauma?

While the natural process may be painful and difficult, that in itself does not cause the experience of trauma unless there is some cause for strong anxiety or fear. The more common cause for feeling traumatised is feeling the loss of power over your own body and situation when people do things to it that are outside your control. That is the cause of all trauma – Feeling Powerless over your own situation.

In other areas of life, you can see how certain types of situations can cause people to feel traumatised. Eg. Bullying, for example, where the victim feels like they have no power to prevent the bullying, War is another situation where people can feel traumatised, both the civilians who have no control over the events in their lives, and the soldiers who have to obey orders and do things that may not necessarily choose themselves.

So how can trauma happen in a birth situation?

Firstly, during labour and birth, the moms are in a vulnerable state. They are dependent on the care providers for helping them and their babies safely through the process to varying degrees. They also have some level of trust that their care providers will take care of them appropriately. Physically, they are vulnerable because they are in pain, half-dressed and may be exhausted and not thinking straight.

While most of the time, care providers are motivated by moms and babies best well-being, the fact is that they are also human. Just because we, as a society are trained to believe that we should always trust doctors, doesn’t mean that every doctor will never abuse his/her power. They are human. It would be ridiculous to think that everything a doctor does is always for the safety of moms and babies in birth. It’s not unreasonable to realise that there are other factors that effect decisions doctors, nurses and midwives make in labour. For example, scheduling, time, other patients, being tired, not wanting to do extra work, differing payment amounts for various procedures, peer pressure, lacking in experience or knowledge about certain situations, and as Kalina experienced, needing to train student doctors, nurses and midwives.

This leads to a heck of a lot of medical procedures done that kinda, maybe needed to be done, but probably not. Things are done to speed things up, make extra money, train students, get it over with so they can go home, go to sleep or go on to the next patient. The thing is, nobody is going to come right out and say that. They say things like, “The baby could be in danger,” “The baby’s heart rate is not looking good,” “It’s best for you and your baby,” and so on. Most mothers and fathers would not have the background knowledge to know the difference between a real problem, and a fudged one. They might happily agree to any procedure thinking it was saving their baby’s life. That probably won’t lead to feeling traumatised unless the procedure directly or indirectly causes some unexpected damage or pain, and the mom realises later on that the procedure may not have been necessary.

Many times, the risks to procedures are not explained before they are done. This can eventually lead to women feeling like they have no control over their situation because they don’t know what could happen or what they are agreeing to. Agreeing to a membrane sweep, induction, forceps, c-section and many other things has unwanted risks, but women are not told about them before they are agree to it. Worse still, it is common for membrane sweeps to be done by some doctors at 38 or 39 weeks without even informing or asking the woman’s permission. Forceps of vacuum can be great if the baby’s life is clearly truly in danger, but in those iffy cases where maybe, sorta the baby may be starting to show signs of distress, are the risks of forceps greater than the risk of waiting and trying other methods? Forceps can hurt the baby as well as cause permanent damage to the moms pelvic floor resulting in incontinence. If the mom is saying no, and the doctor does it anyway, can you start to see why some women say the way they were treated in labour was a violation just like rape?

That’s what causes the feeling of trauma and powerlessness. That’s what causes post-traumatic stress disorder after birth and some cases of post-partum depression. It is estimated that 4% of women have post-traumatic stress disorder after birth. But birth is a funny thing in human experience –

1. It is one of the few things that only women do. Probably if men did it too, it would be handled a totally different way.

2. It is a private event behind closed doors so the birth is not in public awareness.

3. You may learn how to fix basic things in your car, how to do your own accounting, how buildings are made even though you are not a mechanic, accountant or engineer. But, even though every single person on earth is born, shockingly very few people learn any basic knowledge about birth. Most of what they know is from the media, which is saturated in complete misinformation. Because of this fact, the decision making power over decisions about your own body and baby in birth is often handed over to health care professionals. This is a huge amount of power.

4. Unlike war, which is associated with death, birth is associated with being a happy time with a new baby. It is extremely confusing for both moms and other people when the joy and love is totally mixed up with trauma and horror over the way they were treated.

So because birth is quite different than most things in human experience, the general public cannot even comprehend why some moms could have birth trauma. This is quite clear when you start to mention Homebirth. The most common response is, “Why would anyone want to give birth at home?” “To avoid the risk of having my decision making power over my own body and baby completely violated, duh! What else, would it be?”

I have seen births with complications where the medical staff was awesome, focused and committed to honoring the mother’s wishes within the realm of safety. For example, there was a baby who was having a little trouble breathing and they figured it would be better to take her to the nursery. It was important to the mom to have a few precious moments to see and touch her daughter before she was taken away. The hospital staff totally respected the mom’s request and understood how important it was. They took a lot of care to explain and comfort the parents about everything that was happening with their baby in the nursery so that the parents would not be overcome with worry. It was very touching.

In other situations, however, I have seen medical staff get annoyed with moms’ reasonable requests and feel that they are unimportant. The attitude is that it doesn’t matter how moms feel. They should just be grateful to have a live baby.

The thing is this, there was a study done which showed women’s experience of birth was influenced most by the way they were treated by the people around them, not so much the length of labour, the amount of pain or even the outcome of the birth. Women can have extremely long, painful labours, and feel really good about them if their care providers and support people treated them with respect and dignity. Women can go through miscarriage and stillbirth, and even though that may be very upsetting, can feel soothed by care providers who treat them in a caring way and involve parents in making decisions. Women may have a short, straightforward labour and a healthy baby but feel terribly about their birth experience if care providers were brusque, demeaning or disrespectful to the moms.

As I am writing this, an article is published int he New England Journal of Medicine. Court-Ordered Care – A Complication of Pregnancy to Avoid. It highlights cases where mothers are forced by courts and doctors to undergo medical procedures supposedly for the health of their fetus. Now for the people who can’t see the stupidity and violation of that, I don’t know what else to say. But I know one thing, there is no one in the world who cares more about the safety of her baby than the mother herself. Mothers are not stupid. They are completely able to make decisions about what’s best for their babies and would do whatever they felt was necessary. The doctor doesn’t always know what’s best.

If you or someone you know feels like they have birth trauma, please read Kalina’s page Recovery from Birth Tauma. If you would like to talk to someone, you can call me at 604 809 3288, or email kaurina @ prenataljourney.ca.

Kaurina Danu is a Birth Doula and Prenatal Class teacher is the Surrey / Langley area. She works to empower mothers who want to make informed decisions about their pregnancies, births and parenthood.

Community Birth Program in Surrey

A fantastic new program has opened in the Jim Pattison outpatient clinic at Surrey Memorial Hospital for expecting mothers in Surrey, Delta, White Rock and Langley. The Community Birth Program is modelled after the South Community Birth Program in Vancouver, BC.

Both the Vancouver and Surrey programs are based on the groundbreaking and innovative Collaborative Care model where Physicians, Midwives, Nurses and Doulas work together as a team. Doulas are provided to clients at no charge because of funding from Fraser Health Authority. That means that even low-income women, immigrant women or women who have never even heard of Doulas can have one to support them through pregnancy, labour and post-partum. The women are thrilled to bits to have someone give them personalized attention, in their own homes, and help them navigate the new territory of parenthood, especially if it’s also in a new country. (If you’re not sure what a doula does, read my page What is a Doula?)

Fraser Health decided to provide funding for this program because of the immense success the Vancouver program is having. Significantly lower c-section rates, shorter hospital stays and higher breastfeeding rates. These is all great news for mothers and babies, but also for the budget of the Medical Services Plan so it makes sense to fund doulas and midwifery/physician collaborative care if it’s going to save on the other end with reducing unnecessary medical procedures.

Normally, reducing the medical budget compromises patient safety, but for maternity care in particular, there’s lots of room for reducing unnecessary medical procedures while not compromising necessary ones. For example, the World Health Organization suggests that the optimal C-section rate is probably around 15%. Less than that and women who really need it, may not be getting it, which is often the case in impoverished countries. But more than 15% and probably too many women are having cesareans that may not always be necessary.

To find out what the cesarean rate is in the hospitals near you in BC, go to British Columbia Cesarean Rates. For example, Surrey Memorial Hospital has a cesarean rate of 28.65%. So there’s room for reduction. While a small number of mother’s would rather have a cesarean, the vast majority would rather avoid one. So reducing rates would benefit moms as well as reduce costs. Pioneering programs, such as the Community Birth Program and many others that are effective at reducing intervention rates without compromising safety are important for helping maternity care providers as a whole understand how to effectively reduce rates.

I’m really glad the Surrey Community Birth program has finally opened after years of preparation. It’s going to be a really positive direction for expecting moms in Surrey and the Fraser Valley. While maternity services in BC are already so good, and has continued to improve over the past years, there is always room for improvement.

What I would like to see is good quality prenatal education that is available to ALL first-time moms – that effectively teaches pregnancy nutrition, making informed choices and real labour coping strategies. (I say “effective” and “real” because obviously, I have my opinions about how ineffective and unrealistic some prenatal classes are in regards to those topics)

Choosing an appropriate caregiver for pregnancy is one of the most important decisions women make that effects the path their birth will take. I always teach in my prenatal classes how to figure out if your caregiver matches the kind of birth you want. But by the time they come to my classes, their already in their third trimester. It would be great if women got more information about caregiver choices early on (like before they even get pregnant, or at least in early pregnancy). When women go to their doctors for the first pregnancy test, what I would really like is for those doctors to provide a handout about the three kinds of maternity care providers in BC – Family Physicians and Midwives for low-risk pregnancies and Obstetricians for high-risk pregnancies.

I would also like every pregnant woman to be informed by her initial doctor about what a doula is and how a doula can help her in labour and delivery. It is up to the woman to choose if she wants one or not, but I believe every woman should at least get the information that such support exists and is proven to be helpful. There have been numerous scientific studies which prove the effectiveness of doula support at reducing unnecessary medical procedures while increasing maternal satisfaction and breastfeeding rates. If a doula were a drug, it would be unethical for doctors to not recommend them. But doulas are not a drug, and are not at the moment funded by the Medical Services Plan, so expecting families hire a doula privately. Maybe someday there will be MSP funded doulas available to all women. But for now, there are three options:

2. Interview a few doulas in your area and ask if they are flexible with their rates or if they have payment plans. I am very flexible with my rates because I know not everyone can afford them but I am passionate about providing support to women who want it, and lots of doulas feel the same way.

3. Register with the South Community Birth Program if you live in Vancouver or the Community Birth Program if you live in Delta, Surrey or Langley to get access to midwifery care, physician care and doula support.

If you are expecting and would like to register with the Community Birth Program go to Fraser Health – Community Birth Program for more information. If you would like to BECOME a doula with them, also contact them.

Vaginal Exams are commonly done in labour by nurses, doctors and midwives to find out how dilated the labouring mom’s cervix is. Other terms that refer to the same procedure are VE’s,Internal Exams or Pelvic Exams. It is basically putting two fingers in the vagina all the way up to the cervix to feel :

1. How DILATED (open) the cervix is

2. How soft and short the cervix is (EFFACED)

3. Which direction the cervix is facing – POSTERIOR (to the back) or ANTERIOR (to the front, when labour progresses)

4. Where the baby’s head is in relation tot he pelvic bones (STATION)

5. And what position the baby’s head is facing.

While this can be a very useful procedure to find out very useful information, women also need to understand the full picture.

First of all, the damn thing hurts. It ranges from slightly uncomfortable to downright excruciating. Now remember, in nature female animals and humans don’t regularly go around sticking things up their cervix to cause even more pain and irritation when doing one of the most difficult and intense jobs in their lives – giving birth.

Secondly, it is not an exact science. It is not as if they are putting a ruler in down there. They’re just feeling around and making an estimate with their fingers and their experience.

Thirdly, having too many done can introduce germs and cause an infection, especially if several are done after the water has broken. In general, VE’s should be kept to a minimum and used wisely, but after the water has broken, this guideline should be followed even more strictly. I have seen some births where The rupture of membranes happened days before birth (called premature rupture of membranes), but there was no infection because they were extremely careful to avoid internal exams and instead assess progress by external signs. And I have seen births where the rupture of membranes happened normally at the start of labour * but an unnecessary number of pelvic exams were done, only to cause infections in the mom so that they had to have cesareans.

*Note : Most labours start with contractions and the water breaks towards the end of labour (around transition which is between 8 – 10cm dilation). Only 20% of labour start with the water breaking and then contractions follow soon after. If contractions don’t start within 12 hours of the water breaking, it is called Premature Rupture of Membranes (PROM).

Be wary of having students nurses, doctors or midwives at your labour. They need to learn how to do VE’s effectively, so they do one, then the mentor does one to make sure they’re estimate is right. Then when there is a shift change, the new person might want to do another one. All of this is unnecessary and simply risky once the water has broken.

Some caregivers do internal exams towards the end of pregnancy because they want to guestimate how soon you’re labour will start. Some caregivers don’t do any internals before labour because they don’t see any point in it. They figure labour will start when it starts. There are some changes that take place before labour. The thing is, there is no way of knowing when labour will start because the changes can take place, but then no action may happen for weeks, or no changes may happen and then in a very short time, everything can happen and labour can be quick.

Labor is not simply about a cervix that has dilated, softened or anything else. A woman can be very dilated and not have her baby before herdue date or even near her due date. I’ve personally had women who were 6 centimeters dilated for weeks. Then there is the sad woman who calls me to say that her cervix is high and tight, she’s been told that this baby isn’t coming for awhile, only to be at her side as she gives birth within 24 hours. Vaginal exams are just not good predictors of when labor will start.

Some practitioners routinely do what is called stripping the membranes, which simply separates the bag of waters from the cervix. The thought behind this is that it will stimulate the production of prostaglandins to help labor begin and irritate the cervix causing it to contract. This has not been shown to be effective for everyone and does have the aforementioned risks.

So another reason some caregivers do weekly pelvic exams from about 37 weeks onwards is, if the cervix is slightly dilated enough to fit a finger in, they might try separating the amniotic sac from the uterus to try to hasten the start of labour. Some caregivers ask for permission before doing this, but some don’t even inform the women about what they are doing. So if you do not want his done, make sure you discuss it before allowing a pelvic exam in pregnancy. A lot of women get fed up with being pregnant and want this procedure done in hopes of speeding up the start of labour. But not all women want to do that. Know what you want and let your caregiver know what you want.

Fourthly, the results of a VE can be very discouraging if they aren’t what you expect. A woman who is in intense labour with contractions coming one on top of the other may be feeling that she’s in transition, yet have a VE say she’s only 6cm. This can be discouraging. The thing is, she may actually progress very quickly to 10. Where you are now has no relationship whatsoever with how fast you are going.

The fifth thing to consider will help you determine when a pelvic exam might be useful and when it might be useless or harmful –Will the information from the exam help us make a decision about the course of action ?

A lot of vaginal exams are done just for the heck of it to “assess progress”. Most of the time this is unnecessary and leads to unnecessary cesareans. Sometimes there may be no dilation for hours. There can be several reasons for this :

The mom might be feeling anxious or stressed, which can inhibit labour from progressing. To understand how emotions can effect labour, Read my article.

Or there may be a genuine problem that cannot be solved except with medical intervention.

So the question to ask your caregiver if they are suggesting an exam that you are unsure about is, “What will you find out from the exam and what might you do based on what you find out?”

Usually two basic VE’s are done in labour, although sometimes even these are not necessary. One is when you get to the hospital, or if you are having a homebirth, when the midwife gets to your house. They usually do a VE to check if you are in active labour (4cm or more). Before active labour, the hospital will send you home, and the midwife will go home. Early labour can take hours and there is no point of being in the hospital before then unless there is some medical problem. If you are past 4cm, they will get you a room in the hospital, or the homebirth midwife might call the second midwife to get ready to come.

The second VE may be done when you feel an overwhelming urge to push. They may want to make sure there is no cervical lip left before you start pushing. In both these cases, action will be taken based on the results of the VE.

Other times that a VE may be useful are when a mom is really asking for medical pain relief. The amount of dilation will determine what kind of pain relief (epidural or morphine) may be appropriate or whether labour is close to the end and maybe no pain relief is necessary.

The thing is, some VE’s are done just for the sake of charting purposes. There is a ridiculous theory that dilation ought to be at least one cm every 2 hours. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that different people do things at different rates and that’s ok. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong.

The important thing is to limit the number of VE’s done by figuring out if the information they provide will help you and your caregiver make decisions about what to do next. Don’t take the results of VE’s to seriously. Don’t get discouraged if it’s not what you expect. (I know that’s easier said than done.) And try to have only one person do the VE’s in labour instead of different people and different opinions.

To find out more about prenatal education, natural birth information or doula support in labour in Surrey or Langley BC email kaurina @ prenataljourney.ca or call 604 809 3288.

September 1st was the launch of the new internet video channel One World Birth. I decided to take a look at some of the videos.

The videos are all short clips of interviews with various experts from Europe and America discussing their views on topics around birth. There are some well known natural birth names – Ina May Gaskin, Michel Odent, Sarah Buckley, Sheila Kitzinger and so on. It brings to awareness the polarity that sometimes exists between people who want to promote natural birth as much as possible, and people who want to promote medical intervention in birth as much as possible.

I would like to think that moms who really need medical intervention can get it, and moms who don’t really need it aren’t pressured into having it, whether cesarean, induction, pain meds, fetal monitoring, IV, episiotomy etc. But often the definition of “really needing medical intervention” is the area of debate. There are some situations in birth, although rare, where doctors or midwives all agree are serious problems which require medical intervention. There are some situations where all doctors and midwives agree no medical intervention at all. But the majority of situations in birth fall into the grey area. Different caregivers disagree on the course of action.

The videos on One World Birth begin to bring to light some of the problems in maternity care and the solutions. The Revolution in Birth is one particularly interesting video. I love what they say about how improving maternity and the way mothers and babies are cared for during this important transition in life, will improve society as a whole.

“The topic of birth should not just be a topic for doctors, midwives or pregnant women. It should be a topic for all those interested in the future of humanity.” – Michel Odent, MD

“Natural birth has become an endangered species. And we need to save it because the future physical, emotional, mental health and well-being of our culture depends on it.” – Sarah Buckley, GP

I also quite liked the section “60 Sec Experts” where 3 doulas only have 60 seconds to answer common questions about childbirth –

How painful is childbirth?

How to relax during birth?

How do I know if breastfeeding is working properly?

Is a doula a midwife?

What’s the difference between braxton hicks and contractions?

Is it better to tear or be cut?

I’m looking forward to more videos on One World Birth. It will be interesting to see the development of the topics as the film makers travel around the world.